Martín Guzmán arrives at the International Monetary Fund with Kristalina Georgieva amidst scandal

The Minister of the Economy Martin guzman begins this Monday a visit of several days to the International Monetary Fund, just as the body deepens the debate on the future of the managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, accused of having favored China when she was at the head of the World Bank.

The IMF’s executive board decided on Friday to deepen the investigation.

The Minister is coming to Washington for the Annual Meeting of the Fund and the World Bank, which takes place next week in a hybrid, virtual and face-to-face format. He will remain in the US capital until Thursday to also continue talks for the refinancing of the 2018 $ 44,000 million loan.

Friday he will go to New York meet investors before returning to Buenos Aires.

But Guzmán will not find the best climate in the Fund because Georgieva’s situation is complicated. Since Monday, board members have spent several days questioning lawyers at WilmerHale, which was hired in January by the World Bank to conduct an investigation and last month revealed the findings that compromise Georgieva, who also testified before the board Wednesday. .

The investigation alleges that Georgieva, as CEO of the World Bank in 2017, applied “excessive pressure” on staff to modify the data of the “Doing Business” ranking – a list of countries’ competitiveness for doing business – with the aim of moving China from 85th to 78th in the world rankings and thus benefit from it.

Georgieva vigorously denies the allegations, but he avoided publicly mentioning the subject. Specialized journals such as The Economist They signaled that he should resign. The Financial Time He says the director’s credibility will be undermined in any future decisions involving China.

Others, like Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and the government of Alberto Fernández believe that everything is a power struggle encouraged by financial groups.

In a statement released Friday evening, the IMF said the board had made “Important advances” in the investigation, although he decided “Ask for more details” about the scandal. In this way, stretch definition about Georgieva’s continuity as the head of the body something that leaves her on a tight rope.

Argentina views with concern the crisis facing the head of the Fund. The government considers that an exit from Georgieva could harm her in the negotiations because they have established a good relationship with her and consider her different from the previous management of Christine Lagarde. In addition, the Bulgarian is said to be in tune with some of the Argentinian demands such as the demand for the reduction of the surcharge.

According to Financial Time, Georgieva is said to have obtained support for the board of directors of France, Great Britain, Germany and Italy, in addition to several African countries, which would bring some relief to their situation.

However, the United States, the main shareholder of the Fund, avoided defining itself and only declared that their responsibility was “to defend the integrity of the international financial institutions”.

European support is essential for GeorgievaBut it needs Washington’s backing. Traditionally, European leaders elect the head of the IMF, as the United States designates the head of the World Bank and Latin America the head of the Inter-American Development Bank.

The United States broke the unwritten rule when an American prevailed at the IDB (Mauricio Claver Carone) and the Europeans were not ready to let Georgieva down.

In this context, it is clear that today’s Bulgarian has other concerns more important than Argentina’s debt. The government has encouraged the postponement of a deal after the November elections and is due to close it before March. But the future of Georgieva, considered an ally of Argentina, is today uncertain.

Washington. Corresponding